My wedding dress still bears the scars of one of my many bad experiences with choux pastry. Picture the scene: a marquee in the garden, flapping in the wind; round tables laden with bottles and glasses, the speeches in process and the guests beginning to slouch in their chairs. We have just cut the cake, or should I say broken it, for ours is a French wedding cake or croquembouche; a tower of profiteroles stuffed with creme patisserie and glued together with snappy caramel.

To break into it, the newly married couple traditionally tap it with a rolling pin. This ritual done, I and my beloved turned so the speeches could begin. Then the page boy got bored. Picking up the rolling pin, he gave the cake a smash worthy of an opening batsman, letting rip a cluster bomb of caramel shards and splattering custard all over the back of my dress.

Later, reflecting how my glorious, life-affirming moment had segued into a scene from Meet the Fokkers, the thought crossed my mind (after the recurring one about throttling Henry the page) that I have never been lucky with choux. All earlier attempts to make it have ended with sad, deflated cakes that never puffed enough to pipe even a teardrop of cream into – hence my shyness at bringing it up as a baking club project.

But it must, I suppose, be brought up; we’ve covered most pastry types and choux is haunting the inventory. The problem lies with the way pastry chefs tend to write up the recipe for choux. They make it sound so easy. I know this because I now have a book that properly explains pastry, and my very first, newborn, perfect little choux pastries have just come out of the oven, perfectly aerated.

Credit goes to Richard Bertinet, who teaches at his own baking school in Bath and so is up to his elbows in one type of dough or another on a daily basis. Far from telling how easy it is to make choux, Bertinet knows that many of us actually like to be treated like beginners. So here is his recipe in detail, which can be adapted to eclairs, profiteroles and all things delicious for romantic treats.

Richard Bertinet says you need two skills to make choux pastry well: confidence with a piping bag (a cloth one is always better as it is easier to grip) and the patience to allow the pastries to bake properly so they are crisp. He also recommends sifting the flour, and not adding any sugar, as some bakers do, as it makes the pastry less crisp.

Have all your ingredients ready before you start. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Bring water, butter and salt to the boil in a large pan.

Tip in the flour in a steady stream and whisk. Continue to whisk all the time until the mixture clings to the whisk. Swap the whisk for a wooden spoon and beat well over the heat for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is glossy and comes away from the edges of the pan.

The mixture is hard to work by hand, so use a food mixer, beating the mixture for about 1 minute. Then add the eggs one at a time while keeping the motor running. If you prefer to beat the eggs in by hand, transfer the mixture from the pan to a bowl and beat them in one by one with a wooden spoon.

Whether mixing by hand or machine, go carefully with the eggs as you might not need them all. You are aiming for a mixture that will hold its shape for piping. At that point, the mixture is ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 170C. Fill the piping bag with the choux mixture then pipe 12cm-sized heart shapes onto the baking sheet. Put immediately in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and well puffed.

Resist the temptation to open the oven until about 4 minutes before the end of cooking when you can open the oven door a little to let steam escape and help with the drying process. Remove and cool on a rack.

When the pastries are cool, halve them with a knife and pipe sweetened whipped cream inside. Replace the lids then ice with a glaze made from icing sugar and sieved fresh orange juice. You can also add fresh berries, or fill with cream and glaze with chocolate.

Your letters

Andrew Mueller asks, “For our wine society dinners each of us has to make one course, and my job (alack) is the petits fours. Can you recommend a source of moulds?” Best for these is siliconemoulds.com, which does everything you will need.